JENNY Clark is known among her closest friends as the queen of the side hustle.
Her extra work avenues see her take home up to £1,000 a month, to boost the income she earns from running her own business.
Jenny Clark, 30, earns between £600 and £1,000 from side hustles a month
It helps top up the income she earns from her own business
The 30-year-old is a one-to-one yoga teacher, works in a cafe, does marketing for small brands – and even spends her spare time teaching archery and axe throwing.
Jenny does all of this around her main job of running a company called The Wild Times, which has seen her organise 22 yoga retreats over the past two years since she started out.
“I’m the yoga teacher and the paddleboard instructor and I organise everything from the chef to the activities and do all the marketing,” she told The Sun.
Like with all new companies, Jenny, who lives with her boyfriend in London, is putting any profits back into building up the business – which means that she needs to hustle for extra cash.
She does this using the skill set learnt from past jobs to help other small businesses.
“I’ve always worked for startups where it’s all hands on deck,” she said.
“Everyone’s getting involved and doing everything and you’re figuring it out as you go along, doing 12 jobs at the same time.”
As such, she does freelance marketing work, creating branding and doing social media strategy for companies including a sustainable women’s cycle wear brand, and also works for a friend in her new cafe.
She added: “Quite a few of my friends have also set up their own businesses and one in the New Forest opened a cafe at the same time that I started The Wild Times, so I’ve been helping her out and working in the cafe.
“We’ve been crying and laughing and supporting each other.
“We also created some teas together called New Forest Apothecary so we sell them through her cafe and I put them in my retreat goodie bags.”
Jenny has also been working for an events company, running activities for corporate team building days out, teaching everything from archery and axe throwing.
This is something she got into through friends who were also working there – and it turns out you don’t need to be an expert in wielding an axe to do this as a side hustle.
“You have training sessions beforehand,” said Jenny.
“And no, nothing’s ever gone wrong. There is proper safety gear.
“I give them pointers and score them and some people get super competitive and really into it. It’s fun.
“I find people are apprehensive or think they’re going to be rubbish and then actually, they are really good.”
How much she earns from side hustles
Jenny earns at least £600 a month between her various side hustles and it can be up to £1,000 in more lucrative periods.
Added to the modest salary she has started taking from her business in the last six months, she said she typically takes home between £1,500 and £2,000 a month in total.
She has plenty of advice for anyone wanting to supplement their income with side hustles.
Jenny said: “I’m always trying to think diagonally, I suppose.
“Think about what skills you have and what you can do and how differently this could be used.
“I do think it’s good to think outside the box a bit.
“Always follow things up as well, because you can sometimes think ‘oh, they haven’t got back to me, it’s my fault’ or ‘I’m not good enough,’ but the reality probably is that they’ve just got another 40 CVs that day and they’re really busy.
“Getting face to face and meeting people to build up that connection and rapport helps as well.
“I get people calling me now, knowing that I might be looking for extra work.”
Fitting side hustles on around a day job is an art form and there’s one thing Jenny swears by to keep her on track – Google Calendar.
She said: “I have to just put everything in my calendar straight away because I’ve got retreats up to next October already and I have to schedule everything in to make sure I know where I am and what I’m doing.
“And then I also schedule proper break times like screen-free Sundays.
“I enjoy doing different things, I find it interesting, but you’ve got to try and manage your time and energy.
“Even just taking ten minutes to go outside and drink your coffee, or whatever resets you.”
There’s no such thing as a typical week for Jenny, but she often spends four days a week on the retreats and then fits her side hustle work in around that, doing six to seven days a month of extra work.
The marketing work is flexible and she just keeps track of her hours.
Events work, though, can be 12-hour days.
She said: “I have a never ending to-do list but I’m trying to get better at taking my own advice and building in enough time to rest.
“I’m someone who likes doing a lot of things and doesn’t necessarily need a lot of structure.
“I almost don’t really like having a lot of structure, I like being able to have the freedom to make my own schedule. I thrive off it.”
Tax rules around side hustles
It’s important to be aware of the tax implications of earning extra money through side hustles.
Running a side hustle is similar to running a small business, so get clear on your rights.
If you earn more than £1,000 extra a year, you’ll need to pay tax on your earnings.
You can operate as a sole trader, a partnership or a limited company.
The rate of tax you pay will depend on whether your side hustle is a limited company or not.